Eben Moglen is leaving the board and his general counsel position now that the latest draft of the third version of the open source General Public License has been released. GPLv3--which covers Linux, among other projects--kicked up a firestorm over issues including digital rights management. Another round of discussion is planned, but the big issues have been correctly addressed, he says. "The detail work--which as lawyers we have to take more seriously than everyone else--is ready for the pressure of reality," Moglen says.

Moglen will teach at Columbia University and run his nonprofit, the Software Freedom Law Center. He promises innovative lawyering from the center, such as creating a corporate-like structure that can be shared by multiple free software projects. All the legal advantages, he says, with minimal overhead.